Delete It

I have had my email account for nearly 15 years.

Typing that makes me think. 15 years. Wowsers. People have been locked up for less.

In any case, in that time I’ve picked up a few habits. One of those habits is to be really organised with the incoming emails. I like to subscribe to certain emails – devotionals, word of the days (as in dictionary type words), – then there are the emails I get about church and work and personal stuff. So that requires good organisation. Set up the folders, sort out the emails. I don’t need the email, I delete it. like that email, I keep it, I store it and put it in the right folder.

That’s a habit I maintained for years. I didn’t check my email every day. Sometimes I’d not have access to it for a week or so. Sometimes I wouldn’t even check on it properly for a couple of weeks. So when I eventually got round to it, there would be a lot of clinical checking to do. A lot deleting and a lot of filing for later.

After nearly 15 years, though, it occurred to me that I’ve done quite a bit of filing. Not that it was bothering the storage space. Yet there was still a reminder of the filing away that had been taking place for that length of time. Then there was a genuine question of did I really need to retain all that had been filed. There was an email I had filed from 13 years ago that simply told a friend that I wanted to get something from some web-site. That’s all the email said. It was barely of value 13 years ago. Now???

There are some things that have been of value in my life and I’m really grateful for them. Not everything needs to be filed though. If you’re not careful the storage space of your life can be taken up with filing away redundant and irrelevant material. It might do some good to have a root through from time to time and just delete the stuff.

By the way, if you think you can’t just delete it, you’d be surprised by what you can do,. I know that’s the case, especially when you appreciate that the space can be used to retain something of far greater value.

(Photo by Kim Gorga on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden